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Study portrait

Jonkheer Barthold Willem Floris van Riemsdijk  1920

Head-and-shoulders, three quarter profile to the left, wearing a black suit, a white collar, a blue pin, glasses and a long white beard

Oil on board, 71 x 51.5 cm (28 x 20 ¼ in.)

Inscribed lower right: de László 1920 may

Sitters’ Book II f. 17: B.W.F. van Riemsdijk 23.V.1920 [signed on calling card: Jhr. B.W.F. Van Riemsdijk, Hoofddirecteur van het Rijks Museum]

Private Collection

Barthold van Riemsdijk (1850-1942) was the director of the Rijksmuseum from 1897 to 1921. He was the younger brother of Theodorus van Riemsdijk [10774] and uncle of Anna Loudon, whom de László had painted in 1908 [6234] and 1920 [6237]. In 1877 he married Johanna van der Leeuw (1855-1918). They had six children, of which the second daughter Maria died in 1903, shortly after her twenty-fourth birthday.

Correspondence in February 1920 between de László and van Riemsdijk, reveals that van Riemsdijk attempted in vain to assist de László in organising an exhibition at the Amsterdam-based artists’ association Arti & Amicitiae. On 30 March 1920, however, de László was elected an ‘Art-loving Exhibiting Member’ of the association, an earlier meeting having decided that he could not be admitted as an ordinary member.^[1]At the following ‘Spring Exhibition of Paintings and Sculptures produced by Members of the Association’, from 25 April to 30 May 1920, de László exhibited three portraits, one of his sons John and those of Sophica Jurgens [2030] and Wilhelmina Cremer [4205].^[2]

De László arrived in Amsterdam on 6 May. This portrait was probably painted soon after to thank Barthold van Riemsdijk for his support with the Arti & Amicitiae. Barthold’s son-in-law Maurits de Beaufort later asked if de László wished to keep the portrait of his father-in-law or if he and his wife could hang it in their house.^[3] This tells us that this portrait of Barthold van Riemsdijk was not a commission, but was made as a mark of friendship. At the same time de László painted a portrait of Barthold’s daughter Johanna de Beaufort [10770].^[4]

The year after this portrait was made the sitter retired from the Rijksmuseum, despite efforts to make him stay another year, and moved into a house in Amsterdam with his youngest daughter. There he pursued his hobbies of painting and restoring pictures. He died aged ninety-two.

EXHIBITED:          

•Museum Van Loon, Amsterdam, De László in Holland, Dutch Masterpieces by Philip Alexius de László (1869-1937), 3 March-5 June 2006, n° 36

LITERATURE:         

•Grever, Tonko and Annemieke Heuft (Sandra de Laszlo, British ed.), De László in Holland: Dutch Masterpieces by Philip Alexius de László (1869-1937), Paul Holberton publishing, London, 2006, pp. 8, 50, 54, 59, 60, 66, 67, ill. n° 36

•DLA023-0068, letter from B.W.F. van Riemsdijk to de László, 11 December 1934

•DLA023-0067, letter from B.W.F. van Riemsdijk to de László, 21 January 1935

•DLA023-0069, letter from de László to B.W.F. van Riemsdijk, 31 December 1934

•DLA055-0030, letter from Maurits de Beaufort to de László, 27 May 1920

CWS 2008